NEW PALESTINE — The high school basketball season isn’t over yet for New Palestine’s Maximus Gizzi.
Gizzi, a standout junior point guard for the regional-finalist Dragons, was named to the 2019 Indiana Jr. All-Stars team on Wednesday. He averaged 15.8 points per game this year, along with 4.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds.
One of 24 players selected to the team, Gizzi will compete tentatively on June 1 against the Kentucky Junior All-Stars, at a Kentucky site to be determined.
“I’m obviously very excited to be selected for this team,” Gizzi said. “Being a junior all-star was a goal I set for myself a while back, and to see it actually happen is an amazing feeling. It’s also exciting to be selected with so many good players who I am friends with and to have the opportunity to play with them.”
The all-stars are broken up into four groups of six. Gizzi will play with the Blue Group, which is made up of Gizzi, Murray Becher of Heritage Hills, Noah Jager of Bloomington South, Kiyron Powell of Evansville Bosse, Kenny Tracy of Decatur Central and Andrew Welage of Greensburg.
They will team with the Core Group for the June 1 game. That group consists of Trey Galloway of Culver Academy, Jaden Ivey of Mishawaka Marian, Anthony Leal of Bloomington South, Charlie Yoder of Westview and Dre Davis and Nijel Pack of Lawrence Central.
Delta’s Mark Detweiler will be the head coach for the boys Junior All-Stars. He willl be assisted by Ryan Eakins of East Noble and Ryan Osborn of Carmel.
The Junior All-Star team is determined by the 20-member Indiana Basketball Coaches Association all-state panel. The selection process allows all IBCA-member head coaches to nominate players through the IBCA all-state process. Representatives from 16 regional areas from across the state, district representatives from the IHSAA districts (one each from District 1, District 2 and District 3) and the committee chair then meet to review the nominations, vote and finalize the selections.
The IBCA/Subway boys basketball Senior All-State and Underclass All-State teams for 2019 will be released later this week.